Reality as a message

The problem of reality is in how it is traditionally thought about, as something tangible, as a given - something that is there simply because it’s there. With the development of means of communication throughout the history we should not really speak of the ‘real’ without regard to the ‘communicated’ - as H.Lefebvre formulates it in Production of Space, “(social) space is a (social) product” - in which light the production of reality can be looked at in a broader sense from within the social space, as a notion encompassing all the communication elements, such as facts, ideas, messages, narratives or conditions.

1. Reality is a message. As anything you see, hear or otherwise sense is a story (fabrication). In line with the general theory of communication (S.Hall), the ‘real’ has to become a narrative, a ’communicative event’ before it can be encoded for transmission and decoded later by the audience.

2. Further, reality is interactive - not only it is fabricated by producers for receivers, but it can also be manipulated by the end users. Thus, it no longer a static product subject to receiver’s interpretation, but comes with the instruments that allow users shape it prior to final recognition.

3. Reality includes feedback. The feedback loop includes the flow of user data back to the producers, allowing the producers to analyse the user behaviour for future coding of messages and interactions.

4. Reality is augmented towards the capital. When we say ‘augmented reality’, which direction does this augmentation happen? It is done by producers, for the receivers, but it is fundamentally grounded in the capital. Therefore, it is the user who the reality is targeted to, with the purpose of getting the feedbacks, behaviours and other data, but it is the client who the reality is ultimately shaped around.

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